A Moment in Settling In
by hydraling110
Summary: Sometimes settling into a new life can be complex and trying, but Sam and Mikaela rather enjoy the new norm they've found for themselves.


**I must admit this is rather random for me. The plush idea formed when my mother purchased for me a bumblebee-esque plushy, and it attacked mercilessly like plot bunnies tend to; I had to write it down. Though that happened months ago, it wasn't until just recently one of my friend's talked me into posting it. **

**It's technically not my first Transformers fic, but the first that I've been persuaded to post (and, in my opinion, while it's probably not the BEST example of my writing, it certainly isn't a "bad" one), and the first oneshot I've ever considered keeping a oneshot. Oh well. If you find typos/don't understand stuff/etc., please message me - I proofread, but you never know what you missed. **

– Transformers never was and will never be mine. Depending on continuity and era the exact recognized rights change, but they certainly don't include me, and will forever be Hasbro incorporated. –

* * *

Sam was waiting out the duration of a normal evening. Although, for accuracy's sake, the evening would technically not be considered average (with aliens and robots playing key roles and whatnot). When considering that just a month and a half or so ago Sam had never given the existence of aliens much thought, or – even a couple weeks prior – that he hadn't given the thought of a permanent base in the desert for said aliens much time, the evening couldn't be truly average. However, lounging with an alien guardian who had rapidly morphed into one of his best friends was quickly becoming the norm.

The small hanger was largely empty, with small being a relative term. Even though most of the buildings of the under-construction base weren't in the best of conditions they were definitely large, and the 'small' hanger that was soon to be dubbed the 'Human Room' was certainly large enough to comfortably house any and all of the autobot's earthly contacts. Besides a dozen or so boxes of stuff yet to be unpacked, furniture yet to be put together, and a couple piles of doodads yet to be sorted through, only a single human and a robot – the robot similar to the hangar in that he, too, was relatively 'small' – inhabited the room.

Well, them and two brown chairs, that was. And four mattresses shoved randomly off in a corner.

Sam currently found himself sprawled out on one of the chairs. It was a recliner, but he only had the back reclined. He was angled diagonally across the thing, one leg going up and over an arm, the other hanging off the front, with his head and upper body resting on the chair back. Every once and a while he would dare to let his head hang off the chair.

Bumblebee had already warned him several times that some of the positions he adopted were unstable and might lead to the chair toppling over backwards and inevitably causing injury. They were warnings to which Sam paid little to no heed, which vexed the autobot scout, although Bee seemed reluctant to nag his friend and charge too much over something so retrospectively trivial.

"I still don't see why juggling humans is out of the question," he said, resurrecting a conversation dead for over a day now without too much of a prompt. "You guys are walking computers. I'm sure you could figure out how far human tolerance for force goes. Plus I highly doubt you'd drop one of us; I'm sure you gunners have pretty good aim."

Bumblebee – seated next to the chair at present – gave a tired groan of gears. He looked down and over at Sam, who once again had his head hanging over the chair and was looking upside down at him. "That is beside the point. There will be no juggling, bowling, playing catch with, or attempting to make boomerangs and/or frisbees out of organic organisms!" Bee told him adamantly. He was thoroughly disturbed by some of the suggestions Sam had given him when he had asked the boy if he had wanted to do something. Somehow, he didn't think Sam was entirely joking for all of the strange suggestions, either.

Sam just laughed and shifted. "Lighten up, Bee. Besides – no one likes bowling anyway. Well… Miles sort of likes it, but he's not very good, funnily enough."

"I think you could be missing the point."

Another couple moments passed in silence before either made a new comment.

"… Is asking Ironhide to design light sabers so we can duel still out of the question then, too?"

This time, at Sam's dramatically disappointed voice, Bumblebee did laugh, which made Sam smile appreciatively.

"Or maybe I could go find some pipes we could use? Even large sticks might work. _Anything_ to put off this redecorating or whatever." Sam sat up a bit more to look around the room. "Speaking of which, wasn't Mikaela supposed to be back, like, ten minutes ago?"

"Probably traffic," Bee shrugged, even though he had been counting every second the girl had gone over her approximated return time.

"Probably," Sam conceded. "That or a shopping spree… I can't believe you guys got renewable prepaid credit cards with ridiculous amounts of money on them. Or, well, I mean… I can believe it and completely understand why, what with saving the world and all, but still. I'm jealous."

Bumblebee revved his engine playfully. "You shouldn't be jealous of something you own."

"…Best two-thousand dollars I ever raised, hands down, man. Though I could've done without the evil robots from hell chasing me."

At that point, Bee glanced over to one of the doors leading directly to the outside of the hangar. Sam followed his cue and gaze in time to see the door handle twist and then open to reveal a smiling Mikaela.

Sam's first instinct was to call out a greeting, but he paused at the expression on her face. Sensing the awkwardness between the pair, Bumblebee also held off on saying anything, bewilderment getting the better of him, wondering what was going on.

"Sam, you will never guess what I found at the store today," Mikaela broke the silence. Her eyes shot briefly to the robot in the room before returning to the other human.

The teen shot a questioning glance at his guardian in turn. Bumblebee, who was now even more lost than before, just shrugged. As a pair they turned their attention back to Mikaela, who was clearly hiding something behind her as she walked forward. From the sound of it, it was something in a noisy plastic bag.

"Is it something I'd like?" Sam inquired carefully, again fidgeting in the armchair. The way he saw it, whatever Mikaela had behind her back in that bag could be 'unguessable' for two different reasons. It would be either completely awesome from his perspective, or completely awful. There was no middle ground possible.

Mikaela halted in her steps, nodding. "I think you'll like it. A lot." She gave the resident robot a comical glance.

Now Bee was further intrigued, his processors dying to figure out what she was talking about.

Nobody moved or said anything for about ten seconds, and then,

"Mikaela. You can't leave me sitting here in suspense," Sam announced, standing quickly. "See? I literally can't be left sitting… Note how I got up."

The girl quirked an eyebrow, grin melting into an amused smirk. She decided to spare him and elaborate, "While I was out gathering some stuff, I saw these in one of the toy aisles in a store. I just had to get them. I bought this one for you, and I have another one in the car for me. Now… you can't tell me that you don't totally _love_ this!"

She tore the bag away and discarded it on the ground, swinging a big plushy animal around from behind her back and holding it happily in front of her for the inspection of the two other people in the room.

It was an adorably fluffy and plump bumblebee, complete with a little black, dull stinger, foil-textured wings, bent little antennae with tiny black balls topping them off, and large, plastic jewel eyes in a bright blue-green color. A black smile was stitched onto its face.

"Holy crap!" Sam announced. He, too, was now smiling broadly as he walked forward with outstretched arms. His hands were reaching childishly.

Very pleased with herself, Mikaela tossed the stuffed animal at him. The similarly colored robot now stood up, intent on having his curiosity assuaged.

Sam, meanwhile, was having a mild fan boy attack. He turned the bee plush this way and that in his hands, squeezing it experimentally and then hugging it tightly. Ooh, it was impossibly soft and fluffy and… and huggable! Extremely huggable. He toyed with the antennae for a moment by flicking them about with a lazy index finger, then tapped on the plastic eyes that were observing him. As he explored the toy, Sam received a nod from his girlfriend when he found a little 'squeeze me!' tag on the corner of one of the wings. He squeezed.

The plushy emitted an overly loud buzzing noise.

The grin on Sam's face grew.

"Aw, man, this thing owns! Mikaela, you rule. Did you know that?" praised Sam excitedly, laughing. Mikaela simply shrugged and nodded, pretending to be accepting cheers from all around, thanking the imaginary crowd. She paused momentarily, eyes catching on something behind Sam. That was when Sam, too, became aware that there was a fifteen-foot tall robot waiting for explanation just behind him.

Sam turned around and held the gift out. "It's a bumblebee, Bumblebee!" he said needlessly. "It's like an imitation of a tiny, organic you!" He squeezed the buzz-button again.

"It is," agreed Bee after a moment, sharing in the actions of smiling at the toy. He found it endearing that Mikaela had purchased plushy namesakes of him, and that both her and Sam clearly liked them so much.

"See, I just made this rule," Mikaela informed just as Sam was placing his new stuffed animal into one of Bumblebee's questioning hands, "that if I ever have kids, they aren't getting within a foot of a teddy bear. They're getting stuffed bees and toy guns, listening to jazz, and learning how to fix cars. There will be zero chance for a normal childhood for any kid I come in contact with from now on."

Bumblebee looked at the human female and Sam set off another round of buzzes from the bee. Mikaela thought that her boyfriend was almost _too_ amused by the stuffed animal for his own good, but she kindly said nothing. A boy unafraid to get happy over childish toys was still a wonderfully refreshing experience compared to the generally macho, insensitive sports types she was used to.

"Ha. Kids, right… but yeah," Sam piped up once a split second of embarrassment dissipated. "If that ever happened, I'd agree to those conditions. Teddy bees completely kick teddy bear asses any day of the week."

Naturally Bee was inclined to agree, and he nodded his head absently while he lifted the toy up to his face for closer inspection. Delicately, he pressed the 'squeeze me' button, blinking as the toy vibrated on his palm. He poked it once more in the round and fuzzy abdomen before lowering his hand and allowing Sam to reclaim the object.

As Sam remained distracted and under the spell of squishing the bumblebee plushy in his grasp, Mikaela scanned the room and the assortment of boxes and gadgets. Having passed by more boxes outside and having purchased several more not longer than an hour ago, she sighed.

"I think we have work to do, you guys. Human visitors can't just hang out in a giant empty room for the rest of eternity." Realizing Sam was paying her no attention and was instead staring crazily into the false eyes of his new gift, she snapped and then clapped her hands at him, calling his name with both of those methods failed. He shifted gaze to her. "As I was saying… Work? Now? Getting started, maybe?"

"Maybe," Sam said shortly. Then, with a mischievous smile, he turned to Bumblebee briefly before smiling instead at his girlfriend. "But before that, Mikaela, I have a pressing question. What are your feelings about the art of juggling?"

Mikaela got the distinct impression of missed joke when Bumblebee began clicking exasperatedly and dropped back onto the floor where he was, shaking his head in equal exasperation. When Sam began to laugh, the feeling solidified.

However, at the robot's comical stance and the way Sam was smiling like a doofus with a stuffed bee probably meant for little kids and girls tucked under one of his arms, she couldn't help but laugh. It would have been strange only two months ago to picture herself hanging out with – and dating, no less! – Sam Witwicky, visiting and riding around in robotic organisms from space, and setting up human 'habitats' in abandoned storage bases in the Nevada desert. But now, as Mikaela laughed with genuine friends from multiple planets of origin, and felt for the first time as if she and everyone around her could truly just be honest with each other about their strange pasts, their irregular hobbies, their unusual skills, and their personalities…

She felt that she could really get used to this sort of thing.


End file.
